About Shira

I am a Mompreneur whose passion is to teach individuals that it is possible to run a successful business and be an involved stay-at-home parent.  Prior to having children I spent ten years working as a television producer. After my babies came into my life, I decided I could never return to the work force and started my own business from the comfort of my home.   In my spare time, I enjoy anything fitness related and can often be found playing volleyball on the beaches of Southern California.

For any mom, let alone a mom who runs a successful business, balance may seem elusive. I have a friend, we’ll call her Sally, who has a seemingly perfect life – great husband, happy marriage, wonderful healthy children, financial freedom. Like I said, perfect. The kind of life we all dream of. A few years ago, I asked a mutual friend of ours, we’ll call her Abby, if Sally’s life was as perfect as it seemed. Abby responded that yes, Sally’s life was pretty darn close to perfect but that like anyone, Sally faces some challenges now and then. The difference, she added, is that Sally is the type of person that makes lemonade when life hands her lemons. It’s an expression I had heard a dozen times but it never hit me like it did that day. A person who makes lemonade when life hands her lemons. After thinking about it, my thoughts went something like this: I’m not that kind of person. I want to be that kind of person. I can be that kind of person. If you knew what a powerful effect your thoughts have, you would never think a negative thought again. So I started down the path of becoming a person that makes lemonade when life hands her lemons. This blog is my way of sharing the knowledge I have gained about achieving balance in what I feel are 4 critical areas: Personal, Physical, Financial and Environmental.

I started the blog in 2009 as a journal to record my thoughts and progress as I trained for the Long Beach half marathon with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Team in Training. Though I had always been active, I had never trained for any kind of endurance event.  I am not, nor have I ever been a runner. I don’t even really like running but I took on this challenge on the eve of my 40th birthday because I couldn’t take hearing about one more life being ruined by cancer and wanted to make a difference. 

Training for the marathon ignited in me a passion for health and wellness and the pursuit of  a career that would allow me to do something I felt passionate about but also give me the freedom and flexibility to be home with my children and continue to do some charitable work as well. Ambitious? I thought so too. But it turns out if you pursue what you want with passion and urgency, impossible won’t even occur to you.  I was in pursuit of something that would allow me to contribute to the household income, make an impact in this world, but allow me the flexibility of being able to be home and raise my own children and I found it. If you want to learn more about what I do, please send me a personal message.

Still interested? OK, here’s some more. When I was not quite 21, I packed up my life and moved to Israel leaving my entire family behind. Not even one long lost relative anywhere in Israel. I settled in Jerusalem and began a career in television production. Unbeknownst to me, a man born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina would also move to Israel and later become my husband.

For one reason or another, life led us to Los Angeles where we reside today. We have two beautiful children –  Leila and Elan. Leila was born with severe/profound sensironeural hearing loss which means that without the use of hearing aids she is essentially deaf. She was fit with hearing aids as an infant and received outstanding early intervention services allowing her to participate in mainstream education as a completely aural/verbal child. Her deafness is just barely detectible in her speech and persona. She is a remarkable child with an unquenchable curiosity and thirst for knowledge. So much of her success in school and life can be attributed to her strong-willed character and relentless determination. It’s an outstanding and admirable quality to possess but it makes my job of parenting her challenging to say the least. From time to time, I’ll also blog about the journey of parenting.

I hope you enjoy reading my stories. If you want to be in touch with me directly I can be reached at shirabea@gmail.com.